Gratitude Tree 2010

Here are the results (a little belated) for this year's installment of our annual November tradition. The spelling gets better every year:

• Family
• Roomba
• P90X - bring it!
• Mother's Day
• Animals
• Joseph's culinary skills
• Back rubs
• The gospel
• Gratitude trees
• Scriptures
• Missionaries
• Father's Day
• Friends
• Church magazines
• Church
• Inspired church leaders
• I love my brothrs!
• Jesus Christ
• I am good
• Education
• My body
• Our Tempurpedic mattress
• I am thnkful for the cumpuotr
• I love you!
• Blagkit [I think that's blanket...]
• Nature
• Hi!
• I love my Dad!
• Family [duplicate submission...]
• Sunday!
• I love you too!
• Ravrint [reverence]
• I like you!
• Home
• School
• Good days
• Earth
• Love me!
• Parents
• Food
• Chances to learn and grow
• Stuffed animals
• Videos
• Cousins
• 32' reeds
• Herbal tea
• Electronics
• I like you, too!
• Learning
• Beds
• Chopin
• The plan of salvation
• Heavenly Father
• Learning
• Grapefruit
• My blanket
• Great friends
• Hose [picture of house...must be house]
• Immersion blender
• Love one anothr
• I love my mom
• I like Thankesgivigg [picture of turkey]
• The beautiful earth
• A nice, warm, comfterble bed
• Valentine's Day
• Events that I don't cry in
• Thanksgiving, especially the food
• Easter
• Thanksgiving
• 4th of July
• Toys
• Christmas
• St. Patrick's Day
• Grandparents

"What!" A book by Brendan, with interpretive text by dad

Pencil on 3x5 colored index cards.

What!

By Brendan

Ilosretid [Illustrated] by Brendan

What!

SAD

What!

HAPPY

What!

MAD

[Oooh. Angry eyebrows.]

ME

[I love the rounded arm pointing back at himself]

YOU

[winking?]

GOOD

[Random scene of violence. (Sigh.)]

What!

[The End]

A Menu

In honor of Tricia Hopkins
on the 7th anniversary of her 29th birthday


Salad
Spinach, strawberries, and honey-roasted pecans
Tarragon grapefruit vinaigrette


Main
High-roasted chicken with herbed mustard
Crispy pan-browned Yukon gold potatoes
Haricot verts


Dessert
Double Valrhona chocolate cake
Ice-cold organic milk

Bon appetit!

Spago Beverly Hills

Tricia and I are in LA for the weekend for a friend's wedding. Since it was my birthday earlier this week, we decided to splurge and have dinner at Spago tonight. It was a fabulous meal. Here's what we selected:

First Course
Tricia - Apple and endive salad, with Asian pears, medjool date confit, and balsamic reduction
Joseph - Beef short rib tortelloni with Maitake mushrooms and a totally unbelievable beef glace

Second Course
Tricia - Spicy beef goulash with spätzle
Joseph - Veal Weiner Schnitzel, fingerling potatoes, beets, and marinated cucumbers

Dessert
Tricia - Chocolate bread pudding, chocolate ganache with chocoloate cream brioche and butterscotch ice cream
Joseph - Creme fraiche souffle Kaiserschmarrn with sauteed strawberries

We both also had spearmint tea.

To top it all off, Chef Puck came to our table for a minute to greet us.

2009 Gratitude Tree

Each year in November we tape a construction-paper tree to the wall, and we and those who visit us write what we're grateful for on fall-colored construction-paper leaves. Here are this year's results:

• My family
• Dogs
• Adam
• Brendan
• I'm grateful that Grandma is better
• Mommy
• Hugs and loves
• Daddy
• Wii Lego Star Wars
• An attached garage with an automatic garage door opener
• Homes
• A healthy, green, organic lawn
• Food
• Helpful children
• Bubble wrap
• Happy children
• Kind neighbors
• Christmas music
• Spiders
• Basbol gams ["Baseball games"]
• Books
• I lik mi fod ["I like my food"]
• I am grtfol f mi o [?????]
• Nathan's cheerful help
• Toothpaste
• Honey bees
• Prayer
• My Hopkins nephews...all three
• A warm, comfy bed
• I am grtfol for mi mom
• Grass
• Brendan's drawings
• I am grtfol for mi (picture of a rocket)
• The Atonement of Jesus Christ
• I (heart) Nasin ["Nathan"]
• The resurrection
• I am a ciod of God ["I am a child of God"]
• Mi books
• Mi frns ["friends"]
• The Holy Ghost as a Comforter
• The world
• Nathan helped carry groceries for Jon and Kelly
• Going to the Outer Banks for Thanksgiving
• Danger [Yes, it's a house full of boys]
• I lik mi mom
• I am grtfol for my cat [We don't have a cat. He must mean his stuffed animal...]
• Roomba
• For freinds
• Mom Dad

Some Answers to 100 Really Interesting Questions

Our oldest son was recently given an assignment by our dear developmental consultant at the NACD. (By the way, we can't say enough wonderful things about our experience with this group. They have empowered us as parents to help unlock our children's potential - in our case by overcoming some neurological and developmental constraints - but their perspective on human development isn't limited to fixing stuff that's broken. If you're a parent looking for guidance on how to help your child excel, you should check out the NACD.)

But back to the assignment: in an effort to give him something other than stimming to focus on, he was instructed to come up with 100 really interesting questions and then research and write down the answers.

His questions covered a number of topics, including 13 questions in astrophysics, 16 in biology, 22 in engineering and materials science, 20 in geography and culture, 14 in physics, 5 in mathematics and geometry, 6 in outdoor recreation, and 4 in sports. Although it's been a little painful to keep him focused on the task of answering them, some joy has come out of it in the form of several of his answers, which I thought were worth sharing (unedited):

7. Why are you warmer closer to the equator?

Because there are more light rays hitting the Earth closer to the equator. Further from the equator less light rays are hitting the Earth. In the Northern hemisphere you are warmer as you go South and colder as you go North. In the Southern hemisphere you are warmer as you go North And colder as you go South. And just so you know there’s a Western hemisphere and an Eastern hemisphere.

19. Why can sleep make a headache feel better?

Well it depends on why you have that headache. If you didn’t get enough sleep sleeping a little extra can kill that headache.

20. Why do cherries have pits?

A cherry is a type of Fruit. You know the rule all fruit needs a seed. The cherry pit is the seed.

[This next question was TOTALLY his idea...the things they come up with...]

22. Why can it kill you to be in an explosion?

There are 4 different types of injuries in an explosion. Blast waves injuries, Flying debris strikes victim, Victim thrown into stationary object and Thermal burns.

25. Why does the human body need water?

Because without water we’d get headaches. They usuly recomond 8 cups per day. You 70% water. [Hmmm...sort of an obsession with headaches...he does suffer from them.]

27. How do they butcher an animal?

They kill it then they hang it and they skin it.

28. What is agriculture?

It refers to farming food.

53. What’s Canada like?

It’s kind of like living in America.

54. How were Christmas ornaments developed?

Christmas ornaments are decorations that are used to festoon a Christmas tree. ["Festoon"? Who uses that word?]

65. What’s Mexico like?

Don’t expect literature. [Needless to say, this answer did NOT pass muster. He's probably too young to read Carlos Fuentes, so we may need to enlist the help of our geographer friend whose doctoral work was about Mexico to set him straight on this one.]

69. What’s South Africa like?

There are poor people and there are rich people. [We really need to work on geography =)]

77. How does gravity work?

Gravity will pull things to the nearest ground. To make it up into space You have to go faster than the speed that the gravity pulls you down. On Earth to make it into space you half to go at least 11.2 kilometers per second. In a Black hole you have to go faster than the speed of light, which isn’t possible at all.

81. What’s the loudest thing on earth, and how many decibels loud is it?

Volcanic eruptions are the loudest sounds on the planet. The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 is estimated to have been 310 dB loud and was heard 3,100 miles away (http://www.makeitlouder.com/Decibel%20Level%20Chart.txt).

82. Why do boats float?

The boat pushes down and the water pushes up. The water pushes up harder than the boat pushes down. Boats weigh less than water. Water weighs more than boats. So Boats are at the top.

91. How do you tell which way is North ?

Look at the Sun at dawn or dusk. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Go East and Turn Left and you’re going North. Go West and turn Right and you’re going North. Go South and make a U-Turn and you’re going North. Go North and go Straight and you’re going North.

100. What are the rules of baseball?

1 2 3 strikes and you’re out.

Hans & Franz & Franz

Tonight before bedtime, I told the boys that it would be getting into the 40's overnight and that they should make sure to put on warm PJ's. Well, they took me literally and came downstairs in 7 layers of clothes.

Tricia was instantly reminded of the old SNL Hans & Franz skit, so they put on a little show for us. Thought we'd share: